Making Thanksgiving Fun for Kids

Trouble. Sorry. Whoonu. Don’t worry–I’m not expecting any problems on Thanksgiving, other than maybe a little indigestion. These are the games I’m going to bring over to a friend’s house where we’re spending the day.

See, sometimes Thanksgiving can seem like more of a grown-up holiday. So this year I’m trying to look for ways to keep my kids involved (and to win at least a round or two of Uno—seriously, when did my 7 year-old become such a card master?!).

Plus I’m really looking forward to spending some time with my girls without having to worry about homework getting done, being late for basketball practice, or even keeping up with my email.

Here’s what I’m planning so far–I’d love to hear your ideas too!

Board games.

Classics like Checkers and Monopoly can be fun, but since we’ll be with friends, I’m bringing along games that encourage conversation.

Whoonu lets players rank items on cards according to how much they like them. You rank “macaroni and cheese” above “petting zoos”? Cue: Whoonu?

Apples to Apples Junior is another favorite, giggle-inducing, didn’t-know-that-about-you game. Players take turns being the “judge.” The judge puts down a green apple card that has a word on it, say “dangerous,” and from the other players’ stash of 5 cards, they put down what they think best matches. The judge then picks the winner–and at least at our house–has to justify why she chose “doing the dishes” over “pirates” as the best match with “dangerous.”

My 9-year-old has become an origami machine. She’s already filled two shoe boxes (and we’re talking winter boot boxes here!) full of paper-fashioned frogs and snakes dragons. I asked if she wouldn’t mind trying out some of her skills with napkins and her eyes went two shades brighter blue. She went and grabbed her origami book and read the Table of Contents asking what requests I had. So along with bringing rolls, a dessert, and some games, we’re bringing napkin animals.

Baking art.

Lately, when I’m making batches of goodies to give to friends, I save a little dough for my kids. I just let them create whatever shape comes to mind. Last week my 9 year-old crafted a volcano sugar cookie oozing with raspberry jam lava. And before that my 7 year-old built snowmen out of coconut truffle dough, complete with M&M eyes. So along with making one regular batch of dinner rolls, I’m going to let my three kids roll out the second batch. My guess is some will end up crescent shaped, some frogs (a current fascination) and others snakes–because it’s just fun to roll the dough out with two hands and then add a couple raisins for eyes.

Do you remember anything fun that you did as a child at Thanksgiving to make it memorable? Are you planning on doing anything different this year to keep your kids involved?

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There are always wishbone wars, but those don’t last too long. What entertained me and my brothers for hours was building forts and then shooting each other with rubber bands, but I’m sure you don’t want to do that.

This is a fantastic list of games and ideas. The origami game book looks really good! Everywhere we go we take a sketch book and pencils or pens so that the kids can spontaneously create some of their own games or sketch something together. Scissors and tape are a good thing to bring along too.

What I remember most about celebrating Thanksgiving with my kids was telling them the history behind it, since we lived in France and were the only family on the block who ate turkey that night. I also remember trying to bake a pumpkin pie from scratch, but the French pumpkin did not work very well. After that, I added pumpkin pie filling to the cranberry sauce I carried back in my suitcase every year after summer vacation.

Alexandra, I just read a blog post about someone in France shopping at the American store at Thanksgiving for cranberry sauce and pumpkin!
And in my childhood, my uncles would play cards with us and cheat us and each other. Everyone also raced for the sofa to take a nap.

My kids really enjoy decorating place cards for everyone. There will be a lot of cousins running around so it is definitely a loud, fun scene for everyone. After dinner we have music, which all the kids really love. This is the baby’s first Thanksgiving (well, that she is more than a blob.) I can’t wait how she reacts–I think she’ll love the chaos. But having a 1-year-old makes it VERY hard to play board games. Because she wants to eat the pieces.

That’s great. I’m trying to remember what my brothers would do at Thanksgiving like that, but at the moment I’m drawing a blank. I do remember having some heated discussions about who got the wishbone!

That’s a good question. I haven’t come across any, but we go around the table before we eat and say something that we’re grateful for–I think a lot of families do that. But this year my kids have decided to do a Thanksgiving play and I’m encouraging them to include gratitude in the mix (I haven’t been allowed to know the details of the play yet…)

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